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[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Radical Dreams" by Samuel Guest.]

He only wanted to survive, many times crying out for help from the depths of condemnation, pain and anxiety. Still, it was not easy until he fell in love with words. The Radical Dreams chronicles Samuel Guest’s journey through feelings of loss, gut-wrenching suffering onto the path of healing and moments of romance. The poem Winter Tempest brings out the anxiety and turmoil captured a lot in most of the poems in the first part of the book. The second part focuses mostly on healing while the third contains bits of romance.

I loved reading The Radical Dreams mostly because of the poet’s candidness in displaying his emotions. Samuel Guest writes about the painful, difficult emotions that many people fight so hard to conceal and puts it out there for inspiration. His bravery is praiseworthy. The collection contains a lot of raw emotions frankly presented in Guest’s work. The poem Condemned is one of the compositions that is a reflection of Guest’s sentiments.

In many ways, I believe writing poetry is therapeutic and this is brought out in this collection of poems. Guest deals with emotions by creating thought-provoking poetry that really helped me process my own emotions. Probably one of my greatest takeaway in reading The Radical Dreams by Samuel Guest is that emotions of any kind be it anger, confusion or frustration require to be faced and dealt with so as to bring out hope and growth.

Another important aspect of the poems contained in the book was their ability to evoke emotions. I fell and rose with the poet’s pace, in many cases empathizing, feeling angry alongside the author and finally identifying the rays of hope that shimmered towards the end. The writing style is graphic, sometimes fast and other times slow depending on each scene that the poet wished to create.

I also liked that many poems contained originality and common clichés were avoided. Guest’s outlook is unique. Much of the composition of the poems is mainly derived from the poet’s own experiences in life. His struggles and focus on achieving what he intends to achieve are well-crafted throughout. The end is bright and along the way, the poet starts to heal through his love for words.

One thing that I did not like was the brevity in detail in many of the poems. Still, this was compensated by the powerful selection of words that were used.

The book left me with a lot to think about and work through. Most importantly, it challenged me to audacious with my dreams and not to quit. One of the poems that really highlights this message is The Endless Road. I rate The Radical Dreams 4 out of 4 stars.

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The Radical Dreams
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It is a book with a lot of processing. Thank you for the review.

Any book that has me questioning my existence and dream sounds great. Nice review.

I agree with you that poetry is therapeutic. However, I've just never been able to get into it. This seems like a very emotional collection, and I'm glad it was done well. I think I'll still pass, though. Thanks.

Insightful review. However, I'm not sure if I should read this.

Poems, poems; awesome collection... at least from what you have here said.

Thank you very much!!

Wow. You described everything I hope for when I open a book of poetry. Thanks for the recommendation!

This statement "...I believe writing poetry is therapeutic..." PREACH IT! There's ringing of truth with your statement. I had depression before but somehow that depression gave me more inspirations to write. Few years after I realized that experience was a blessing in disguise to me.

I think I may be able to resonate with the writing of this author. Gonna get my hands on this. Thank you for your in-depth review on this.

I love poetry carved out from the poet's own emotion and smash into pages. I would read this.

I feel with poetry that you need to put in the effort to appreciate it fully, so I really need to be invested in it before picking a book. This is probably not one for me, but I like how you describe poetry as therapeutic ... nice review.

poetry is more of a talent.Used well it can give us freedom ,freedom of expression... thanks

I also agree with you that poetry is therapeutic. Often some of the best poems come from a place of pain. This sounds like an emotionally honest collection. Great review!

I always love the depth of feeling that comes from poetry, and this book sounds like it's full of it. I really love when what I read makes me have deep thoughts about existence. Sounds really great!

This sounds like an intriguing read. Thanks for the review.

Sounds interesting! Thanks for the review.